Building a sustainable social enterprise sector in Scotland: 2017-2020

Implementation

The implementation of this three-year action plan will be facilitated by the Scottish Government's Equality, Human Rights and Third Sector Division.

We will work with national partners to establish a Reference Group responsible for coordinating implementation of this action plan. A full Monitoring and Evaluation Plan will also be published this year.

Through the effective implementation of the actions outlined in this plan, we expect to make a positive contribution to each of the following National Outcomes:

• We take pride in a fair, inclusive national identity
• We realise our full economic potential with more and better employment opportunities for our people
• We have strong resilient and supportive communities where people take responsibility for their own actions and how they affect others
• Our young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens
• Our public services are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to local people's needs
• We have tackled the significant inequalities in Scottish society
• We live in a Scotland that is the most attractive place for doing business in Europe

To strengthen our multi-agency focus and accountability, we will introduce a suite of headline social enterprise change indicators that enable us to measure the contribution of the sector towards achievement of our national outcomes and policy goals.

We will monitor change by way of a biennial Social Enterprise Census. Building on the data produced in 2015, this will provide evidence of the changing scale, characteristics and contribution of the sector in 2017 and again in 2019. This Census and other sector data will be presented in an accessible online performance dashboard.

The full story of our contribution to these changes will be captured by performance information ( e.g. output data, case studies) associated with each of the main programmes and initiatives set out in this Action Plan. Additional support for self-evaluation will be built into programme design and made available to delivery partners.